Alumni Story

Always give back if you have a chance.”

As a high school athlete, the first college coach who got in touch with Dave Robbins was Catawba’s Earl Ruth, who semi-recruited him. “But my grades weren’t good,” he chuckles, “My mom said about me ‘He’s a good boy, but he has no thirst for knowledge.’”  So, he went first to junior college at Oak Ridge Military Academy for two years, then came to Catawba. While at Oak Ridge, his team played the freshmen/junior varsity teams at Catawba. “That was when Coach Sam Moir saw me. He had also gone to Oak Ridge.” 

Graduating with the Class of 1966, Coach Robbins says, “I would’ve finished in ‘65, but I had another year of football eligibility, so I came back for ‘65-66 for the football season and then did student teaching.”

Dr. Ruth and Coach Sam Moir are the reason he came to Catawba. He had verbally committed to a different school that offered him a full scholarship, but they didn’t follow up with him within the timeframe they said they would. Meanwhile Coach Moir invited him to visit Catawba…which had a football program… the other school didn’t. Coach Moir also offered him a full scholarship. “I wish I could’ve been a better basketball player for him than I was, a more controlled player. He said I was ‘wild as a buck.’ I was used to playing a much faster round of basketball in junior college. I actually coached more like him; he won me over.”

A busy schedule as a three-sport student-athlete didn’t leave time for much except studying. “We had a closet in our dorm room and I had a desk in the closet and put a light in there and would go in there to study. It took me longer to learn something, but once I did, I didn’t tend to forget it.” Yes, he did go to the library to study. There was also an outstanding prank: “Some of my teammates put a Volkswagen Beetle on the steps of the library, they were big strong linemen. I won’t say who they were,” he laughs.

Dave Robbins knew he wanted to coach. “My dad wanted me to come into business with him as an automotive mechanic, I told him I wanted to coach, he said ‘Son, how are you going to make a living?’” Coach Moir told him that Physical Education was a major to get to coaching. In that program, he learned to tape and treat injuries; about ice and whirlpools and electric stimulation; skills he used in his coaching career. And he took other required courses. “The hardest course I took at Catawba was religion, I thought it would be a course like Sunday School. I had Dr. (King) West, an excellent teacher, but tough!” He remarks that he spent more time with his coaches than with professors. “But the coaches also had to teach a class then.”

His first job after Catawba was teaching eighth grade in Dallas, NC. Moving to Virginia, he coached for four years in junior high, also teaching physical education and Virginia state history. “I was about one chapter ahead of my students. I didn’t know anything about Virginia history, and I told the school that. They wanted me to teach it anyway.”

Had he not come to Catawba, “I’d never have ended up with the Denver Broncos, or been a coach at Virginia Union, or met my wife and had my kids.” He shares, “I can’t imagine being happier than I ended up being - married a wonderful lady, two great daughters, five grandchildren.” His stint with the Denver Broncos was shortened due to injuring his knee.

Now retired from coaching, he remarks, “I didn’t make much money, but I enjoyed coaching!” These days he says he has a little farm, plays a lot of golf, and does some public speaking.

“I was asked to speak to the men’s basketball team at Catawba last year and the thing I said was ‘I’m white-headed and old and fellas you don’t care a thing about what I have to say. When I was sitting in your seat and Coach Moir had someone come in, I didn’t care about what those folks had to say. But how many of you want to play after college?’ All hands went up. ‘I said, do you realize that whether you’re in high school or college, if some coach comes to see you play, he never takes his eyes off you, he watches everything you do? It all has to do with whether he’s going to give you a shot at playing ball for a living. Be in good shape, don’t believe your own clippings - you’re about half as good as you think you are - and don’t have an entourage. And if someone has been in your shoes before, listen to them, you can learn from them.”

Coach Robbins shares that he has been honored for the last several years to be invited to come to Livingstone College and talk to their guys. “They’re in our conference at Virginia Union, we play them. I’m honored to get asked to speak to young groups.” 

Coach Robbins credits his Catawba basketball teammate Tom Childress ’64 (retired Senior Vice President of Development at Catawba) as instrumental in his being nominated and inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. “When you coach in Virginia, you’re not on the radar in NC. Tom pointed out, ‘Here’s a Catawba grad.’”